explaining_errors_in_star_trekfandomcom-20200215-history
Waltz
' |image= |series= |production=40510-535 |producer(s)= |story= |script=Ronald D. Moore |director=Rene Auberjonois |imdbref=tt0708660 |guests=Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun, Marc Alaimo as Gul Dukat and Casey Biggs as Damar |previous_production=The Magnificent Ferengi |next_production=Who Mourns for Morn? |episode=DS9 S06E11 |airdate=3 January 1998 |previous_release=The Magnificent Ferengi |next_release=(DS9) Who Mourns for Morn? (Overall Waking Moments |story_date(s)=51408.6-51413.6 (2374) |previous_story= The Magnificent Ferengi |next_story= Mortal Coil }} Summary The U.S.S. Honshu is transporting Dukat to a Federation special jury at Starbase 621, and Sisko is aboard as well to testify to that jury. Dukat has recovered from the madness that gripped him after the Federation retook DS9. Sisko visits Dukat in the brig. He won’t tell Dukat what he intends to say on the stand but he does offer his condolences for death of Ziyal. Dukat also is now referring to Sisko as “Benjamin.” The Honshu is attacked by Cardassian ships and destroyed. A few escape pods and one shuttle do manage to escape and send out distress calls. Starfleet can only spare two ships for the search, one of which is the Defiant—but Worf can only take 52 hours for the search, as the Defiant is needed to protect a troop convoy as it comes out of the Badlands. Sisko wakes up on a cave floor, his arm bandaged (Dukat couldn’t operate the bone knitter). Dukat tells him that a plasma conduit ruptured and rendered him unconscious. Dukat and Ensign McConnell carried Sisko to the shuttle bay when the call came to abandon ship, but McConnell was killed by shrapnel en route. Dukat managed to crash land, but the shuttle’s engines are toast. He says he’s broadcasting a general distress signal (in fact, the distress beacon is offline). Whoever picks it up, whether Federation or Dominion, will find one prisoner and one comrade-in-arms. Sisko admits that that’s fair. Sisko is also impressed that Dukat found kindling for firewood and is now going to forage for food and water—though they do have plenty of field rations—and just in general that Dukat rescued Sisko. As Dukat goes off, he’s confronted by a taunting hallucination of Weyoun, who insists that Dukat should kill Sisko, and makes fun of his travails in the hospital, curled up in a ball and crying. Dukat loses it and shoots fake-Weyoun, which only shatters rock. His veneer of sanity is just that: a façade that is in danger of collapsing. The next morning, Dukat is preparing something like breakfast, after having cleaned up the results of Sisko’s impressive nausea the night before. Sisko is also less than impressed with Dukat’s declaration of hilarity over the fact that they’ve gone from Dukat being a prisoner of the Federation and Sisko being free to move about to Sisko being a prisoner of his battered body while Dukat is free to roam around. Dukat insists to Sisko that, during the recent occupation of the station, he implemented much fairer policies toward the Bajorans, and that he wanted to rectify the mistakes of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. For his part, Sisko just says that all he heard from Kira and Odo were that Weyoun didn’t give Dukat any choice in that matter. Dukat also keeps hearing things that Sisko doesn’t. He insists it’s the wind, but he goes to check—and, of course, it’s more voices in his head. This time it’s Damar, who says that Dukat is wasting time. Where fake-Weyoun was abusing Dukat, fake-Damar sucks up to him (just like in real life!) insisting that Sisko will never give Dukat the respect he deserves, and he should just kill the captain and return to Cardassia where he can lead his people once again. By bringing the dead body of the Emissary to Bajor, it will undermine the Federation’s position. Dukat insists to fake-Damar that that can all happen in good time. Sisko learns that Dukat has faked the distress signal, but doesn’t reveal that to him just yet. When Dukat’s gone, he works on the unit, though it’s slow going with only one working arm and with only a broken tine from a fork as a tool, eventually getting it back online. When Dukat returns, he comes out and bluntly asks Sisko what he thinks of Dukat. Even as he asks, a hallucination of Kira says what the real Kira probably would: that he’s an evil sadistic bastard. But Dukat insists he’s been vilified and slandered by “ignorant small-minded people throughout the quadrant.” Sisko avoids answering by saying he wasn’t there and can’t pass judgment. Fake-Kira says that Sisko’s just being polite because of the situation, and Dukat’s rebuke of the hallucination is Sisko’s first indication that Dukat isn't fully recovered. So Sisko tells Dukat what he wants to hear: history has misjudged him, not understanding the difficult decisions he had to make. Dukat leaps on that, blaming Central Command for the harsher rulings that he, as a loyal soldier, was forced to carry out. But then fake-Kira laughs hysterically, at which point Dukat yells at her again. Sisko plays along, telling Dukat that they should ignore Kira, pretend like she isn’t even there. Dukat nods his head in relieved assent at the notion. But fake-Kira keeps laughing at him, to the point where he whips out a phaser and shoots at nothing (barely missing Sisko). Dukat then notices the fork with the missing tine and realizes that Sisko has repaired the beacon. So Dukat phasers it and then starts beating Sisko with a stick. The Defiant has found several Honshu survivors, none of whom are Sisko and Dukat. They’ve run out of time, and Worf contacts Kira asking for a few more hours, as Dax briefly picked up Sisko and Dukat’s distress signal. The connection to DS9 is staticky and hard to understand, but everyone knew Kira’s orders before they left the station. A badly injured Sisko screams at Dukat, finally telling the truth: He will never give Dukat his approval, even though Dukat still insists that he wanted to rule Bajor with a softer hand. He did abolish child labor, increase food rations, and lower the quotas, dropping the death rate by 20%. In response, the Bajorans blew up an orbital drydock a month after he took command, tried to assassinate him, and so on. Even as he rants, there’s commentary from fake-Kira (the Bajorans didn’t want peace, they wanted Cardassia gone) and fake-Weyoun (the Dominion would’ve bene nastier) and fake-Damar (the Bajorans didn’t deserve his generosity). Basically, as far as he’s concerned, it was all the Bajorans’ fault. The Cardassians were the superior race. Eventually, Sisko gets Dukat to admit that he hates the Bajorans. He hates their pride and their arrogance and their spirituality and their earrings and their noses and he should have killed them all. This gives Sisko the opportunity to club him with the same stick and leave the cave. Outside there’s a brutal sandstorm, which Sisko braves, trying to get to the shuttle, rightly assuming that Dukat was as dishonest about its damage as he was about the beacon’s operation. Unfortunately, Dukat recovers and jumps him in the shuttle, tossing him out into the sandstorm and then taking the shuttle, swearing that Bajor hasn’t seen nothin’ yet. Just as the Defiant is about to give up the search due to running out of time, they pick up a signal from Dukat, who alerted the Defiant to Sisko’s whereabouts. They only have time to beam Sisko up, but not enough to go after Dukat, as they have to get to the troop convoy. In sickbay, Sisko tells Dax that spending time with Dukat has made him realize that there is truly evil in the universe. He also swears he won’t let Dukat destroy Bajor. “From now on, it’s him or me.” Errors and Explanations Nit Central # Norman on Wednesday, February 24, 1999 - 5:06 am: Starfleet is supposed to have the finest in all areas, including psychology, and yet somehow they missed this?!!!!! The way that the hallucinations were taunting him here, how did he manage to suppress them all? Maybe the effort of keeping his psycosis at bay had become too much for him. # Keith Alan Morgan on Saturday, May 01, 1999 - 5:50 am: Why would a transport ship, in a time of war, travel close to border of the enemy power? Presumably this was the shortest route. # When discussing good and evil Sisko says, "Shades of grey." A shade is when you add black to a color, making it darker. Grey (or gray) could be considered a shade of white or a tint of black, but shades of grey implies something that is darkening. Josh G. on Wednesday, June 14, 2000 - 1:03 pm: Keith, "Shades of grey" is a metaphor, i.e., don't take it literally! It means an absence of absolute evil or goodness. In other words, people are neither good nor evil, they are simply "shades of grey." The metaphor does not imply that something is darkening, rather that good and evil are not so clear-cut as many think. It's the truth. # Palandine on Tuesday, August 29, 2000 - 8:37 am: The Federation ship is taking Dukat for an initial hearing for "war crimes"--at least if you believe what Dukat said, and Sisko didn't correct him. What war crimes could he have possibly committed? The Dominion War to that point was a pretty by-the-books sort of war; I don't recall the story line mentioning any atrocities. Ratbat on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 4:11 am: I dunno, what actually constitutes a war crime? (I honestly have no idea of the difference between this and simply being on the other side...which is essential for at least someone if there's going to be a war.) Mark Stanley on Tuesday, February 27, 2001 - 12:54 pm: Ratbat -- there are international laws regarding what is and isn't acceptable in war. If someone does something unacceptable, it's a war crime. I'm at a loss to explain what sort of agreement the Cardassians and the Federation had in order to make the trial of Dukat legal. The writers obviously didn't consult a legal expert to make sure the script made sense. Lawyer on Wednesday, February 28, 2001 - 8:18 am:''Mark, technically there is no such creature as an "international law." There are only conventions and treaties by which certain countries have agreed to abide. There is a "war crime" for which Dukat could be indicted: co-conspiracy to genocide for the attempt to blow up Bajor's sun back in By Inferno's Light. I could probably think up a few others if a had to come up with an indictment. ''Matthew Patterson (Mpatterson) on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 - 10:30 pm: Possibly also conspiracy to assassinate Tekeny Ghemor in Ties of Blood and Water. (Recall Weyoun's immortal line: "Oh my, that is *quite* toxic, isn't it.") Josh M on Wednesday, December 11, 2002 - 11:10 pm: Wasn't someone trying to kill Dukat with that in that episode? Matthew Patterson (Mpatterson) on Thursday, December 12, 2002 - 9:14 am: Well, honestly, it's been a while since I've seen it, but I thought the deal was that he was attempting to keep Ghemor from telling Kira all his secrets? # John A. Lang (Johnalang) on Friday, January 25, 2008 - 8:39 pm: After the shuttle lands, Dukat puts Sisko's arm in a metal cast. However, after Dukat assaults Sisko with the metal pipe, Sisko's metal cast is gone. LUIGI NOVI (Lnovi) on Saturday, January 26, 2008 - 6:08 pm: My understanding was that Dukat removed the cast in retaliation for Sisko contacting Starfleet with the transmitter. John A. Lang (Johnalang) on Sunday, January 27, 2008 - 6:46 am: That's a valid assumption. I never thought of that. Andy Clark on Tuesday, February 10, 2009 - 4:43 am: According to the script, the cast got broken when Dukat attacked Sisko. Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine